1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sports' whistles, and, more particularly, to hockey referee whistles which are gripped by the fingers of the referee's hand and operated by inserting it into the referee's mouth and blowing into it.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In playing the game of hockey, football, basketball, and various other multiple person sports' games and activities, a mouth-blown whistle is employed by the games referees to rapidly communicate with the game's players to signal the end of play or the resumption of activities or the like. Such is necessary for control of the game by referees.
A whistle simply held by the fingers of the hand and tied to a loop of flexible material and placed about the neck of the referee has been frequently recognized in the prior art as inadequate due to the substantial amount of time it takes for the referee to decide to act, locate the whistle, to grab it with his hand, to insert it into his mouth and to blow it.
As a consequence, a whistle was designed having a C-shaped element secured to the underside of the whistle body forming a gripping surface about a pair of the referee's fingers. Such an arrangement offers a vast improvement of the speed of the referee's response to the game's activities.
However, one of the problems discovered in use of this type of a whistle is the real risk and danger of the referee chipping or otherwise causing injury to his teeth by the rapid insertion of the mouth blowing end of the whistle into his mouth, thereby placing the whistle into proper position for operation.
Another equally important problem with this prior art whistle is that the finger-gripping element goughed the fingers in a not-so-kindly fashion, producing calloused, and, sometimes, cut fingers.
The present improved and unique whistle was created to solve and over come the hereinbefore mentioned problems of the prior art whistles.